TY: Kill the Boy - Road to BlizzCon 2018 (#13)

Kill the Boy

It's a well established concept in StarCraft II that the tiniest of margins often make the most sweeping differences. One moment of indecision or lost focus can prove the difference between clinching a trophy and watching someone else do it. Those moments are often identified easily, as mistakes are, by nature, easier to spot than the subtle brilliance we've come to expect from the very best. Sometimes, however, those moments are difficult to pinpoint. What action, for example, could TY have taken to change history? What we can say for sure is, that on the 15th of September, TY was as close to a GSL championship as he had ever been, and that it all fell apart for him.

His duel against Maru in the grand finals of Code S Season 3 was both mentally and physically demanding, with the Jin Air Terran continuing his onslaught of proxy builds map after map, resulting in brutally fought games. The success of those strategies was mixed, as TY was able to keep his cool for a long time, finding ways to defend and win. The Splyce Terran found himself on match point after winning the fifth game on Blueshift. One more win would have denied Maru a feat that would immortalize him, instead of making TY the latest stepping stone on Maru’s path to legend. One more map and TY would finally have held the Korean trophy he has been craving for so long. What could have ended in a sixth game on Acid Plant quickly turned into a calamity. A hair's breadth from a Code S championship TY, helplessly allowed the match to slip from his grasp.

Everything went wrong from the first minute, when Maru's SCVs hurried across the map. TY didn’t find the proxy everyone on the planet saw coming—everyone except TY. Where his counter aggression failed to turn the tide, Maru's persistent harassment proved more effective. The Jin Air Terran was faster in the important upgrades, took control of the map, and dictated the pace of the game. When the situation demanded, he was willing to make gutsy decisions with his tournament life and indeed his immortality on the line. TY, in what should have been his magnum opus, seemed unlike a champion, a mere spectator in awe of Maru’s sheer avarice on the brink of defeat. After being utterly dismantled on Acid Plant, there was no way to deny Maru his triumph. It took one more map, but it felt like a mere formality. The grand finals had been decided by then. TY was broken and defeated—again.

This duel had been over ten years in the making. It barely could have been more perfect in its constellation. Both players were once hailed as prodigies of their games. When he won his first match in Proleague, TY—aptly named BaBy—had been two years younger than the previous youngster of the scene, someone named Flash. Naturally, fans not only expected great things from TY, they expected him to rival other legendary Terrans of Brood War, illustrious names such as Boxer and iloveoov.

Whereas Maru had soon fulfilled, maybe even exceeded, the expectations laid on him, TY had been overshadowed by them for most of his career. He finally won his first championship in 2017, ten years after his professional debut. Ironically it was Maru who he barely edged out, 4-3, in the 2016 WESG grand finals. He needed more time to claim his first championship than many careers last in their entirety. He made up for it by winning IEM Katowice and another $100,000. Added to the $200,000 garnered at WESG, it catapulted him into the top 5 prize money earners in StarCraft II. Whether that is apt compensation for years of frustration and disappointment only TY can tell. Had TY been anyone else his career would be considered extraordinary, but with such crushing expectations placed on his shoulders from day one it may well be deemed a disappointment. Winning WESG and IEM Katowice over luminaries like luminaries like Maru and Stats is unarguably impressive, but it never will have the prestige of a Code S title. It will never fill the hole in TY's career.

Rank

#5Korean Standings

WCS Points

6200

2018 Season Stats*

When it comes to Code S TY has a habit of falling short in decisive moments. He did so in the Season 1 finals in 2016 against Zest, having waited the majority of his lifetime for the opportunity to play in a Korean league finals. This year, in Season 2, he could have gotten another chance, but again lost to Zest in the semifinals. Similar could be said about SSL 2015 Season 3, KeSPA Cup 2016, and BlizzCon 2017. And on the 15th of September, in 2018, TY was closer than ever before, and he lost again. This time to Maru, the personification of everything TY could have been himself—an exceptional talent realizing his full potential and becoming one of the best to ever touch the game.

TY has not become the next Emperor of Terran, the next Ultimate Weapon, or the next King. Instead he's mentioned alongside other top Terrans—Maru, INnoVation, ByuN. The question is, is he really their peer? Maru, INnoVation, ByuN come to mind—rather than on his own. And it only makes sense. Each of them has something uniquely theirs, an aspect to their play. Maru has always been famous for his abnormal unit control and aggression, a talent momentarily channeled by ByuN. INnoVation is nicknamed The Machine for a reason; his mechanics and near-robotic execution was long unrivaled. And TY? We are told TY is smarter than everyone else. But each of the other Terrans named alongside him have transformed their unique strengths into at least one Code S title. Is his supposed intelligence, but failure to win the titles for which he seemed destined, all there is to TY? When we look back, after Jun Tae Yang's professional career has ended, who will we remember? Who—what—was TY?

Right now, his name seems interchangeable with a number of other players. After all these years he is still chasing shadows; struggling to fulfill expectations laid on him as a child. There is no doubt TY has had a remarkable career, but he is still shackled by the past. Maru hammered the point home on Acid Plant. Every deciding game TY has ever lost in a Korean tournament playoffs is part of a larger pattern. TY goes on amazing tournament runs, but BaBy loses when it matters. TY is now faced with one of the most difficult things to do for any human being. He must leave the past behind, he must let go of all the 'what could have been's. TY must kill BaBy.

Paradoxically, falling short in this latest Code S final may be the best thing that could have happened to TY before BlizzCon. Losing to Maru, with his eerily similar origins, but wildly different career path, may have shaken TY's confidence, but it might also inspire him to re-forge himself as Maru did at the tail end of 2017. There was no player more fitting than Maru to rip the Code S trophy from TY's hands.

When we look back at StarCraft II will we remember that TY, with all the talent in the world and all the time to capitalize on it, never reached the heights for which he was destined? Or will we remember him as a symbol of perseverance, a reminder to all of us that frustration can be overcome through hard work? Will TY be remembered as a disappointment or a worthy successor to the legends of Brood War and StarCraft II?

There is yet time to change who he is. Earning titles at WESG and IEM Katowice is one thing, but with all his failures in Code S, winning the WCS Global Finals could be the best way to change the course of TY's career. But if he wants to succeed on an even bigger stage than Code S, BaBy, the child prodigy, needs to have died on the 15th of September 2018. TY must set his own standards and expectations from now on. Only by putting the ghosts of the past to rest can he recreate himself. Not as BaBy, not as Jon Sun, but as Jun Tae Yang, the WCS World Champion.

Given TY's not the strongest against Protoss, his group could be very interesting. If he manages to lose against Neeb, who knows what'll happen. Lambo possibly can beat Neeb, but shouldn't win against TY or Maru.

I'd be very hyped if TY & Neeb/Lambo would advance though, but for that some miracle needs to happen. Probably just TY and Maru.

Despite TY being a top 5 LotV player, and having exceptional results almost everywhere, it really does feel like his career is remembered by its failures instead of its highlights.

That game 6 against Zest in the 2016 final, the kespa cup ro4 against Trap, the game 7 against Zest from season 2, the multiple reverse sweeps in gsl last year, and the reverse sweep by Rogue at blizzcon (which would have been a free final against soO).

He's characteristically un-clutch.

Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs

TY is a weird phenomenon. I can't agree on the "he will be remembered by his failures and as a disappointment". For me he is kind of a class of his own. His greatness is out of question because of his massive skill and long career path and not having many championships under his belt hardly can damage this picture for me.The only comparable player that comes to mind is bomber, who also was respected by everyone and had incredible showings of skill but never dominated the korean competition while still being able to beat almost everone.

This is what happens when people expect you to take the mantle of Flash himself...you could never live up to it.

That game of TY vs Trap on King Sejung Station in 2016 Kespa Cup still hurts me so much, all it takes is one volley of focus fire on the warp prism and history might have been completely different, he could've defended Korea from Neeb instead of allowing Trap to humiliate himself.

I think that TY has the capability to play the best of all players; I find his A-game better than Maru's, Innos, or Zest's at their peaks. The top 5 best performances of LotV I can think of were played by him.

The "only" problem is that it seems to hard for him to play at his best, so his average performance is then no that good. The range of players like Inno is something like 70-80, but TY's is like 50-90 -- e.g the mentioned final vs Zest, the first two games TY played just greatly, like 90, but the last games were like from a second tier player.

In the ability to play the game I thus think he is the best, but if "mentality" is accounted in the criteria for the best player, then he'd fall down the ranks.

Maybe had he spent some of his winnings on a psychologist, he'd have won many more championships.

Maru is clearly the #1 player in the world, but in the recent finals, he didn't look much stronger than TY.

TY is arguably a top 2 player in the world right now, so not making semi-finals would be considered a disappointment. Of course there's only 3 rounds in Blizzcon bracket so hard to really say what you expect of a player other than Maru.

To me, TY isn't a disappointment and he isn't going into Blizzcon with anything to prove.

I disagree that ty does not bring a unique style to the table in his games. I would say that ty is the most conservative and deffensive top tier Terran, where innovation's style ebs towards greed, and Maru plays very aggressively ty plays more conservatively. When cyclones functioned differently he pioneered cyclone into 3 cc defensive openings vs toss. In tvt he is probably the best user of ravens in the early game, and in tvz he always opts for more conservative and reliable stratageis. If you watch Ty play he is an expert at using the more technical units of the Terran arsenal he is incredible with cyclones, hellions, ranged libs, ravens and ghosts. His conservative style always sets him up for a stable midgame.

If you watch Maru play he often looks like he comes into midgame behind if his aggression failed but is so good that he catches up anyway. Ty on the other hand always picks the stable stratagey and almost always gets to midgame in an even or better position. I think that in some ways this makes TY a little to predictable he is so good that most of the time he can win off his stable set up but when he matches vs a player who is exceptionally good at risky strategies like Maru he can run into problems since his opponent has a good idea what ty will do but ty is unsure how a player like Maru who can and will do anything will open.Ty is probably almost as good as Maru but Maru has that X factor that his play style is really threatening since he is willing to take more risks than a prudent player like TY. I think as a lot of people have said Ty's weakness probably comes down to confidence, when ty has evreything on the line he plays like it, he sticks to his mold and plays it safe, when Maru or inovation have everything on the line they are willing to gamble everything on a proxy build and it's that dissisive killer instinct that TY does not bring to important matches.

On October 23 2018 01:20 washikie wrote:I disagree that ty does not bring a unique style to the table in his games. I would say that ty is the most conservative and deffensive top tier Terran, where innovation's style ebs towards greed, and Maru plays very aggressively ty plays more conservatively. When cyclones functioned differently he pioneered cyclone into 3 cc defensive openings vs toss. In tvt he is probably the best user of ravens in the early game, and in tvz he always opts for more conservative and reliable stratageis. If you watch Ty play he is an expert at using the more technical units of the Terran arsenal he is incredible with cyclones, hellions, ranged libs, ravens and ghosts. His conservative style always sets him up for a stable midgame.

If you watch Maru play he often looks like he comes into midgame behind if his aggression failed but is so good that he catches up anyway. Ty on the other hand always picks the stable stratagey and almost always gets to midgame in an even or better position. I think that in some ways this makes TY a little to predictable he is so good that most of the time he can win off his stable set up but when he matches vs a player who is exceptionally good at risky strategies like Maru he can run into problems since his opponent has a good idea what ty will do but ty is unsure how a player like Maru who can and will do anything will open.Ty is probably almost as good as Maru but Maru has that X factor that his play style is really threatening since he is willing to take more risks than a prudent player like TY. I think as a lot of people have said Ty's weakness probably comes down to confidence, when ty has evreything on the line he plays like it, he sticks to his mold and plays it safe, when Maru or inovation have everything on the line they are willing to gamble everything on a proxy build and it's that dissisive killer instinct that TY does not bring to important matches.

I really agree with this but I will also add that what also sets TYs style apart is that not only does he play as you describe above but he pushes out with these technical often weird unit sets. TY moves out and I'm like "what the the hell is he planning to do with that". Plays like that actually pretty gutsy and risky if you ask me, love his plays.

TY is a great player to watch. He's not as rounded as Maru, or as dominant across all situations and opponents as Serral. He's not as clutch as Classic or resolute as Stats. What TY has is style - when his game is on, he can make the best players in the world look silly.

Obviously he is part of the pack chasing Serral at the moment, but he is definitely one of the more lethal prospects. While Serral would rightly be favoured over him and should come out on top, I think TYs one of the biggest hurdles given Serral has relatively few world-class Terran practice partners.

On October 23 2018 05:41 Dave4 wrote:Obviously he is part of the pack chasing Serral at the moment,

He is not chasing Serral and is part of no pack. In fact there is no pack chasing Serral.

Serral comes to Blizzconn as a strong contender just like TY, Dark, Maru, Stats, Classic etc. Serral has done noting yet to prove he is head and shoulders above these guys.

So compared to TY, I think Serral is on par with him and both are top tier contenders to take blizzconn.

Well, Serral is definetely someone any Korean would like to beat as some kind of revenge for GSL vs The World. Whoever beats him will be able to say "So what? What was all the hassle about?" It's probably a nice trophy to achieve.

On October 23 2018 05:41 Dave4 wrote:Obviously he is part of the pack chasing Serral at the moment,

He is not chasing Serral and is part of no pack. In fact there is no pack chasing Serral.

Serral comes to Blizzconn as a strong contender just like TY, Dark, Maru, Stats, Classic etc. Serral has done noting yet to prove he is head and shoulders above these guys.

So compared to TY, I think Serral is on par with him and both are top tier contenders to take blizzconn.

Well, Serral is definetely someone any Korean would like to beat as some kind of revenge for GSL vs The World. Whoever beats him will be able to say "So what? What was all the hassle about?" It's probably a nice trophy to achieve.

It's more like he's being hunted rather than chased though. He's very similar to Maru in the sense that beating him on the big stage when it matters is something that has eluded the entire scene for the majority of the year. Both players have targets on their backs for similar yet different reasons: Maru is the King of Korea and much like King Charles XII of Sweden, he's the young king everyone has been forced to respect through constantly losing to him on the battlefield. Serral is the foreign invader and the self-appointed king that has plundered their lands and sailed home to rule over his rowdy subjects like a Viking lord of old. All 7 players from Korea would love to end their reigns of terror and take the crown for themselves.

Their relation to foreigners is probably much more like Achilles' death in Troy: being able to take one of them down would be legendary enough, taking the crown with it doesn't necessarily need to happen for it to be one of the most memorable moments in Blizzcon history.

Season 3 Code S finals were some of the best this game has had to offer, and the fact that winning or losing came down to the last units made it even more sick. As the article faintly touched, there has always been something extremely fascinating for me about TY, which is why I really hope he wins this to permanently cement his status in the legacy of the game. In fact, I would want him to rather lose in the semis for example than the finals, I would hate for him of all players to have an external burden of being the "new age Kong".

With that said, GOGO TY!

A punch is just a punch, a punch is no longer a punch, a punch is just a punch.